Question: What to do RIGHT NOW?

[MaeBe]

With my cross country move and lack of homestead I have not made any headway with legal identity changes. I have changed my gender marker on my new WA license, but it is a standard license.

 

I ask you knowledgeable folk: What do I do now/first? I was hoping to change my name, then update my license and renew my passport. I would also change my name on my birth certificate, but I don't qualify for a gender change on it.

 

We have so little time left before things will get very hard on the Federal side. I am thinking of getting my passport updated with new photo, birth name, and updated gender marker and changing my name later. I think waiting for the name change in WA will push the passport out too far and that the legal name change might be easier to rectify than gender marker during a Trump regime. At the same time I am going to update my license to an Enhanced license w/o the name change.

 

I hate this so much.

[Ivy]

I don't know about WA.  

Passport isn't hard, but you need the documentation for the name etc.  Gender - just tell them - you can even get "X" I believe.

But you're right.  That could change all too soon.  Birth certificate varies with the state.  Mine was in NY, so it went okay.  I am officially my parent's "daughter."

Get started, and good luck.

[Ivy]

Also, I suspect it might take some time for the orange oppression to work its way down.  One can hope.

[Ivy]

Also….  I just remembered.  I was renewing my passport, and correcting the info.  I think that was easier.

[KathyLauren]

I don't know how the various jurisdictions involved will interact.  But my advice to you or to anyone is to get everything changed that you can, as soon as you can.  If the change is done, it is harder for the blue meanies to undo it.  And the more documents you have in the proper name and gender, the less hassle you will get.

 

Your birth certificate is governed by wherever you were born, so you will have to follow their rules.  Your passport is governed by federal rules.  And most other documents are governed by where you currently live.

[MaeBe]

Do all the things. There isn’t enough time to do all the things. 

[VickySGV]

It will be the end of January and nearly the end of March at the earliest before anything more will go against us, and even then there is going to be long drawn issues before a court system will even let him clean his fingernails.  Certainly, take reasonable steps to go forward, but panic will make it worse.  There are legal firms that your local LGBTQ center can refer you to for a bit of money, but not what panic will cost you.

[awkward-yet-sweet]

I'd look at all the timetables for the various things you mentioned.  Like, how fast will the issuing state change your birth certificate?  Would that birth certificate have your new name on it, if you changed your name?  Finding that out is the first step, I'd guess.  If the birth certificate would have your new name on it, I'd do the name change first.  If not, then you could maybe do the birth certificate and name change simultaneously.  And if WA is like most other states, getting your license would happen after you've got those other documents done, and is just a simple trip to the DMV.

 

Whatever you end up doing, Passport will be the last.  Because if you show up at an airport with a passport in your old name, you'll probably get asked a bunch of questions.  Airports are practically a voluntary prison, so I would make sure to have all the I's dotted and T's crossed and everything matching exactly when it comes to international travel. 

 

So:

1. ask questions

2. Name change and birth certificate.

3. license

4. passport

[Ivy]

16 minutes ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

So:

1. ask questions

2. Name change and birth certificate.

3. license

4. passport

This is how I did it.

And ask more than 1 person.  I found that many people at the courthouse don't know what they're doing when it's a transperson.  It's not necessarily hostility, they just don't know.

[KathyLauren]

1 hour ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

1. ask questions

2. Name change and birth certificate.

3. license

4. passport

 

I agree that this order makes sense.  But don't let holdups at one stage stop you from completing other steps.

 

When I started my transition, the only documentation that my province accepted for gender markers was a birth certificate.  And in my birth country, they would not change my birth certificate until I had all my other documents in order.  Chicken and egg.  In a case like, just do what you can as soon as you can, and don't quit.

 

My steps were:

1. legal name change;

2. name change on driver's license and health card (gender marker was still unchangeable at that point * );

3. when the province changed their procedures allowing undocumented gender changes, I immediately applied for that;

4. gender marker on driver's license and health card;

5. birth certificate, finally.

 

* Yes, I was driving around with a driver's license that identified me as Kathleen, with a big "M" under "sex"!  I got stopped twice at police spot checks during that time, and it didn't even raise an eyebrow.

[Ivy]

25 minutes ago, KathyLauren said:

I got stopped twice at police spot checks during that time, and it didn't even raise an eyebrow.

I suspect they didn't even look at the "M".